PSY 2301 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Otto Loewi, Neurochemistry, Somatic Nervous System

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 2301
• Professor: Sarah Schock

Document Summary

Early clues that linked electricity and neuronal activity: Galvani (18th century: electrical current applied to a dissected nerve caused the muscle connected to it to twitch. Electrical stimulation: passing an electrical current from the tip of an electrode through brain tissue, resulting in changes in the electrical activity of the tissue. Caton (early 19th century: he was the first to attempt to measure electrical currents of the brain using a voltmeter and electrodes on the skull. Electroencephalogram: electrical brain graph that records electrical activity through the skull or from the brain and represents graded potentials of many neurons. Von helmholtz (19th century: flow of information in the nervous system is too slow to be a flow of electricity. It is not the charge but the wave that travels along an axon (bernstein, 1886) Flow of electrons from a body that contains a higher charge to a body that contains lower charge.